Smashed Yam Curry (Karunai Kilangu Masiyal)

Karunai Kilangu(Elephant foot yam) Masiyal is one of the best currys that i ever crave for. Its an all in one sweet, sour and spicy curry. It goes super good when mixed with ghee rice or even with curd rice.

I am sure it would be a favorite of all dish. :)

Karunai Kilangu(Elephant foot yam)
Image source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2277/2329935739_d4dccb134c.jpg

Ingredients:

Elephant Foot Yam(Karunai Kilangu)- 1/2 kg
Tamarind paste - 2 tblsp
Onion - 4
Red Chilly - 2
Chilly powder - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 2 tbl sp
Rice flour - 2 tbl sp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powered - a pinch
Salt - for taste
Oil
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Method:

Pressure cook Yam and peel the skin and smash it smoothly. In a bowl, mix together the smashed yam, turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt, jaggery, tamarind paste, rice flour and chilly powder.

Now in a pan(Preferably non stick kadai), take 2 tbl sp of oil and season with mustard, curry leaves and red chilly. Now dice onion into small pieces and add it to the pan. Fry till golden brown. Once done add the yam mixture to it and keep stirring it in low flame for 20 min(until it rolls out without sticking to the sides). You can add more oil if it sticks too much to the sides. Finally add the cut coriander leaves to it.

Yummy yam masiyal is ready.

You can mix this along with ghee rice or have it along with curd rice too. :)

Happy eating :)

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Papaya Banana Smoothie

Chennai is ever hot and summer is the only season here :( (except for few days of light showers). For a place like this, a cold smoothie is the most welcomed drink. :)

Is your papaya void of sweetness???? Never mind.. We can turn it into a more interesting combinational smoothie.

For every mouth full, I was trying to guess if it tastes like papaya??? or like banana??? the irony is that, I never found it till the end.. But I swear it was yummyyyyyyyyy :)

Ingredients:

Papaya - 1
Banana - 2
Curd - 1 cup
Sugar - for taste

Method:

Blend all the ingredients together till smooth. Refrigerate it for an hour and serve chill topped with chopped banana and papaya. :)

Replace curd with milk to make a shake.

Enjoy the soothing smoothie :)

Note: Choose curd that is really fresh. Don't blame me for the bad taste if your curd is sour ;)

I am sending this to Sanghi's FIL - Fruits event. :)

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Food and Fun at Beach! :)

BEACH!!! the word makes all of us really excited isn't it?! Yeah Chennai is blessed with three major beaches, the Marina beach, the Elliot's beach and the Covelong beach.

Okay all of you get set go to walk with me into the Elliot's beach.

Elliot's Beach is spread along the coast down south from Marina. It is also the right beach for Chennai youth. This beach is comparatively quieter and an ideal place to go sea bathing. It is located near Besant Nagar. At the end of this beach are the Velankanni church and the Ashtalakshmi temple. Good roads, pavements, illuminated sands, makes a visit to this beach a real pleasure. :)

I am going to show you all the street food and all the fun you can have at this beach :)

This little girl sells peanuts at the beach. Blame whom for the child labor :( But the kid was extremely happy and excited about her work and was ready to pose for a photograph just as I asked her. Loved the innocent smile on her face. :)

Whats next??!!!!

Tapioca Chips!!! The vendor was an expert in making it, in less than a min the tapioca changed into golden brown crispy chips. :)

The ever famous roasted corn comes next. Perfectly chosen corn is roasted dark and a rub of chilly powder and salt, sometimes along with lemon makes it yummm.. When your teeth meets the end of the corn, I am sure your ears would be steaming ;)

Masala poori :) The color and the presentation makes it really attractive. I wonder for how long this hill has been standing this way. ;)

Boiled peanuts. This is my first choice always. Order for a pack of it, they would add chopped tomato, cucumber, onion, cabbage, lemon juice, salt and chilly powder and give it to us. This delight is 15 rs only :)

Raw mango(Maanga) is one other interesting beach food. A little of salt and chilly powder makes it drool worthy. :)

Is there more??? YES!!! lots more..

Milaga bajji. This is really really famous here in this beach. Hot, tangy and spicy bajjis are made on order and there is a big crowd in this stall in the late evenings. :)

A lot of cooldrinks to quinch your thirst after a good long walk in the beach :)

This is for people who think natural is better than artificial. :) Tender coconut is my choice of drink too :)

Ice cream... I heard such screams here and there by little kids and I joined the team too.. I love ice creams and there are loads of such branded stalls there in the beach. Choose your flavor, sit on the kutty seviru(Wall) and its your day.. have fun!!

Paani poori as I have said in my earlier post, is the No.1 Street food in India. Quinch your thirst and hunger here. I was just wondering how the vendor has arranged a rock on top of the delicate pooris. :) I would never dare to do that.

Cotton candy.. :) The bright pink, yellow and orage is the attraction factor. If you take your kids along, you really cant escape from getting one of these for your kid. :)

Soan papdi is the elder sister of the cotton candy!! :) This is something that I like too. Yumm.. it melts in your mouth in seconds.

Thenga Maanga Pattani Sundal is the little boy's shout along the coast of the beach.

Masala tea stall is right in front of the waves.. Can have a hot cup of it after a good swim. :) But would be the last one to run if tsunami comes as a customer. ;p

Hello hello.. This blog is still a total vegetarian blog.. But this pic is here because I really dint want to miss out anything at the beach. :) Fish varuval says the board. :)

Is there anything beyond street food???!!! Yeah right question.. there are lots more..

You have the ever famous Barista, Emilio's (my favorite) and Planet yum. You can make your choice to these places too.

Upssss I missed to click the pic of the famous south Indian restaurant the Murugan Idly kadai which is right next to the beach too.

This is what I had yesterday after the photo session on the beach. Mango i Pesca the blend of mango and peach in a lovey waffle cup from Emilio's :)

Why to end the post with just food.. Lets have some fun too :)

The beach has a lot to excite the kids and us too. :) The baloon shooting, merry go round, mini gaint wheel, Paper fans, toys and masks etc.. That was a really colorful site.

I was looking for the cute colorful kites.. But I could not find even one.. :( Felt really bad after dad told me that kites have been banned by the law. The glass coated strings are dangerous it seems. :(

What else do we find at beach???

You can get fresh flowers, Colorful bangles and also people who predict your future :) I have never dared to try this out :)

So people.... how was your trip to the beach????

Moar Kali (Butter milk & rice flour patty)

Decoration: Used rice flour to decorate around the plate

Moar kali is a very interesting Indian snack. Its tangy and spicy which really makes it yummmm on a rainy cold day. :)

A simple dish to fill your snack hunger. :)

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Soar curd - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Green chillies - 3
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 2 tbl sp
Curry leaves
Salt - for taste

Method:

Mix curd, water and rice flour together. Grind the chillies to make a paste. Add the chilly paste, salt and asafoetida to the mixture and mix well.

Now in a pan take 2 tblsp of oil and season with mustard, channa dhall and curry leaves. Once it splutters, add the flour mixture to it and keep mixing till it becomes thick and translucent. It will take around 15 min to get cooked.

Now take a ladle full of the kali and pat it to a wet cloth in circular shape using wet hand. Yummy moar kali is ready to eat.

Serve it with idly chilly powder. :) Happy snacking :)

Now for event entries:

I am happy to send 4 of my rice dishes to EFM- Variety rice series at Srikitchen.

And I am sending my Chinese Gyoza to "Its a vagan world - Chinese" event by Vaishali.

And a big thanks to Aruna Manikandan for nominating me for this cute award. It encourages me a lot. :)

I would love to nominate all my fellow bloggers for this award since its a big effort to blog and all of them are good at something or the other. Love you all. :)

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Spicy Rajma Gravy

I am a person who is really biased towards tongue than my health. ;) Because I believe in living for the day. But mom and dad say living for tomorrow is my virtue too. Oh yeah right, I have loads to be done in life and I have to live healthy for that.

Isn't that awesome if I can balance between the both and make a tasty as well as healthy dish!

Here comes my Spicy Rajma gravy with is rich in Protein, Folate, Iron, Phosphorus, Copper, Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber as well as a grand treat to the tongue. :)


Ingredients:

Rajma (Red Kidney beans) - 1 cup
Tomato - 3
Large Onions - 2
Garlic - 10 pods
Ghee - 1 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp(According to taste)
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp
Salt - for taste
Coriander leaves

Method:

Soak rajma in water for 10 hours or over night. Boil for 20 to 25 min in pressure cooker with the same soaked water. Do not throw the water after boiling too, we can use it for the gravy.

Grind onion and garlic into a smooth paste and keep it aside.

Pour 3 tsp of oil and 1 tsp of ghee in a pan and fry the onion garlic paste for a while. Now add turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and salt to it and fry till the oil separates. Reduce the flame and add finely chopped tomatoes to it and fry till it gets cooked. Add boiled rajma and enough water and cook for ten more min. Finally sprinkle coriander leaves. Spicy rajma curry is ready to eat. :)

You can serve it with plain rice or chapathi. :)

A wholehearted thanks to Mrs.Menagasathia of Sashiga for honoring my blog with this award. Thanks a lot for your encouragement. :)

I would like to pass it to all my lovable followers. :)

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Masala Pori (Puffed Rice Snack)

Puffed rice is extensively used as a snack variety in India. There are lots of variations that can be made to it.

Its purely a guilt free snack. So this wont affect your concious diet plans. Munch how much ever you want. :) Happy snacking :)

Ingredients:

Puffed rice(mutta pori) - 1/4 kg
Peanut - 1 cup
Roasted gram - 1 cup
Garlic - 2 full
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Moar milagai(chilly)* - 10
Curry leaves - few
Chilly powder - 3 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Gharam masala - 1/2 tsp
Salt - for taste
Coconut oil - 3 tbl sp


* find moar milagai(Dahi Mirchi) recipe here.

Method:

Clean the puffed rice taking off the hard ones from it. Crush the garlic slightly and keep it aside(you don't have to peel the skin).

In a large frying pan, take the coconut oil and season with mustard, curry leaves and moar milagai. Now add garlic and fry for a while. Add ground nuts, roasted gram, chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and salt and just fry for a min. Finally add the puffed rice to it and mix quickly. Be quick after adding puffed rice, over heating would lead to hardening of the puffed rice. Remove it from flame and transfer it to a different vessel. Masala pori is ready to eat.. :)

Store it in an air tight container and can have it for ten days. But sure you cant resist having it so wont last for a week also. :)

Enjoy snacking :)

And I am sending this to Tea time snack event conducted by Simple Indian Food blog.

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com